Former Madison County Detective Pleads Guilty to Sexually Exploiting Minors

Charlottesville, VIRGINIA – A former detective with the Madison County Sheriff’s Office, who was most recently assigned to the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, pled guilty today in the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia in Charlottesville to multiple charges of sexually exploiting minors, Acting Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Blanco of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and Acting United States Attorney Rick A. Mountcastle announced.

Bruce Arlie Harvey, 41, of Reva, Va., pled guilty today to three counts of transporting a minor across state lines with the intent to engage in criminal sexual acts, three counts of interstate travel with minors with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct, and one count of possession of child pornography.

“Harvey abused his positions of trust as a law enforcement officer and as a karate instructor to sexually exploit two of his female karate students beginning when each was approximately 13 years old, and lasting at least two years for one victim, and at least four years for the other victim,” Acting United States Attorney Rick A. Mountcastle said today. “This case shows that child predators infiltrate every aspect of our society, including law enforcement. Parents should always be on guard and should always remember that child predators may gravitate to vocations and places where they can occupy positions of trust and have easy access to children.Criminals who exploit children should know that there is no longer a statute of limitations for these types of crimes and the United States Attorney’s Office will aggressively prosecute them no matter how long ago they exploited their victims,” said Acting United States Attorney Mountcastle. “While there is little that we can do to reverse the trauma and harm that Harvey inflicted on the two innocent victims, it is our sincerest hope that this prosecution will be a first step toward healing, restoration, and renewal for each of them,” he added. Acting United States Attorney Mountcastle commended the teamwork of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Virginia State Police, and the prosecutors.

“Harvey was every parent's worst nightmare. A multi-victim predator camouflaging himself in positions of trust. School resource officer. Child exploitation investigator. Karate instructor. Despicable,” said Adam S. Lee, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Richmond Division. “I want to, once again, thank the United States Attorney's Office for their tenacity, for their expertise, and for their professionalism.”

According to the information presented during the guilty plea hearing, Harvey, while a karate instructor at the Virginia Tong Leong School of Karate in Madison, began making sexual advances toward the two minor female victims in this case while they were students at the karate school. Harvey engaged in illegal sexual acts with these children after he began giving them private karate lessons and began traveling with each of them to karate competitions and other events at various out-of-state locations, including Ocean City, Maryland.

At the time of his arrest on May 3, 2017, investigators recovered a Sony microcassette in a bedroom closet that contained a film clip dated February 14, 2007, that showed one of the victims performing a sexual act with Harvey in his Madison County home.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Virginia State Police investigated this case. Assistant United States Attorney Nancy S. Healey and Department of Justice- Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section Trial Attorney Lauren S. Kupersmith are prosecuting it.